California Biographies, San Joaquin Valley
Transcribed by Peggy Hooper
This file is part of the California Genealogy & History Archives
http://www.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~cagha/index.htm
Source:
History of the state of California and biographical record of the San Joaquin
Valley, California. An historical story of the state's marvelous growth from
its earliest settlement to the present time.
Prof. James Miller Guinn , A. M.
The Chapman Publishing Co., Chicago 1905
Notes: Missing Page: 865-866,983-984,1175-1176
LUCIUS POWERS. The Powers orchard and vineyard, of which Lucius Powers is general
manager, holds rank among the most carefully improved and most thoroughly cultivated fruit
farms in the Centerville district of Fresno county. The property, which adjoins Centerville on the
west, comprises an aggregate of three hundred and seventy acres, subdivided as follows : one
hundred and fifty acres in raisin grapes ; twenty acres in Emperor grapes ; eleven acres in
oranges ; ten acres in apples ; six acres in figs of the White Adriatic variety ; ten acres in
Calmerna figs ; two acres in peaches ; twenty acres in alfalfa, and the balance in hay and grain
which furnish feed for the stock carried on the place.
Ever since the stirring days of 1849 tne Powers family has been identified with California history.
The founder of the family on the coast was Aaron H. Powers, a native of New Hampshire, but
from early childhood a resident of Boston, Mass., having accompanied his parents to that city.
At the time of the discovery of gold in California he took passage on a sailing vessel and after a
long voyage by way of the Horn landed at the Golden Gate, whence he proceeded to the
mines of the north. Eventually he became engaged in business in Sacramento, where he
continued for twenty years. Upon retiring from commercial life in 1887 he purchased two
hundred and fifty acres west of Centerville in Fresno county and soon afterward planted one
hundred acres of the tract in fruits of various kinds, also laid out a large vineyard. Of recent
years he has given the management of the place into the hands of his son. Lucius, but still
maintains a close supervision of the property and by wise counsel and keen judgment is
proving a helpful factor in the highest development of the land. His wife, who bore the maiden
name of Emma Louisa Sweasey, was born in London, England, and died in California.
Of six sons and three daughters comprising the family of Aaron H. Powers the gentleman
whose name introduces this article was next to the youngest. As a boy he received common-
school advantages in his home town of Sacramento, where be was born January II, 1872. After
having taken a course in a business college in San Francisco he started out for himself, and ever
since has been associated with the fruit ranch in Fresno county, where still he makes his home.
An incident of his youth indicates his progressive, enterprising disposition. In 1889, when
seventeen years of age, he established the Kings River News, a four-page sheet, which was 6x8
inches in size, and was published every other week. The people of the community around
Centerville, which had no publication of its own, appreciated his efforts to give them the news
of current interest, and their support encouraged him to increase the paper to eight pages, but
after he had published it for two years other matters required his attention and he
discontinued the little publication.
By his marriage to Miss Abbie Man, who was born at Colusa, this state, Mr. Powers has three
children. Lucius, Jr., Mary Louisa and Martha Kate. In political belief a Republican, he has been
active in local affairs of the party, and for some years has served as a member of the county
central committee. Fraternally he is associated with the Independent Order of Odd Fellows and
the kindred organization of Rebekahs at Centerville. Both he and his father, who continues to
make the ranch his home, take an intelligent interest in matters for the benefit of the county
and especially give encouragement to movements for the development of the fruit interests of
this locality, believing that the land can be made more profitable by following horticulture and
viticulture than by continuing in general farming or stock-raising.